Season 4, Episode 3
Original air date: October 8, 1990
Star date: 44085.7

Mission summary

Young Jake Potts’ practical joke on his younger brother, Willie, ends in tears when Willie ends up infected with dangerous parasites. That’s it, vacation’s over! We’re turning this ship around. Enterprise has to head to a nearby starbase for emergency medical treatment, or Willie Potts might die; meanwhile, he remains in quarantine in Sickbay, utterly inconsolable. In the midst of comforting Jake, Data abruptly loses interest in the B-plot of the episode and tunes out, running through the next few scenes literally on autopilot.

As if he were being manipulated by some unseen screenwriter, Data changes the ship’s course and speed, then handily clears the Bridge of the ship by turning off life support systems. Once the rest of the Bridge crew relocates to Engineering, he imitates Captain Picard’s voice and locks controls to his station. In the fine tradition of ships named Enterprise, the vessel has been taken over by one person, with everyone helpless to stop him. Even Wesley.

The ship reaches its unknown destination, but since Chief O’Brien has successfully disabled site-to-site transport, Data is forced to leave the Bridge and make his way to a transporter room. With full control of the ship’s systems, he pulls some neat tricks with force fields in the corridors to evade capture, and soon beams down to a jungle on the planet’s surface, where he meets Dr. Noonien Soong — the brilliant cyberneticist who created him, long thought to have been killed by the Crystalline Entity.

Soong has activated a homing beacon to bring Data to him, but the signal reaches someone else who is supposed to be dead: Data’s evil twin brother, Lore. After their last tussle, when Lore colluded with the Crystalline Entity, he was transported into space. He drifted for two seasons before being picked up by a Pakled ship, which was looking for things to make it go.

Soong has summoned Data because he’s going to die soon, and he has spent his last years developing an emotion chip that will upgrade Data’s programming to make him more human. Unfortunately, since he had no idea Lore had ever been reassembled, he has only made one chip. Bummer.

Meanwhile, Enterprise is still in orbit around Soong’s planet, because Data has put a password on the ship’s computer. Willie Potts is running out of time, so they get creative. They do some techie stuff with the quarantine fields in Sickbay to clear the corridors of Data’s force fields, then use a few tricorders to reset the transporter to factory defaults and trick it into allowing Riker, Worf, and La Forge to beam down after Data.

As soon as Soong has installed the only existing emotion chip in the universe into Data, the android bursts into a quiet rendition of the song “Abdul Abulbul Amir.” Uh oh. Yeah, that’s not Data.

He starts calling the clueless doctor “Often Wrong Soong,” which tips him off that he’s just put the chip in the wrong android. He tells Lore the chip wasn’t designed for him and it has to be removed, but Lore knocks him backwards and beams out, still singing.

The Enterprise away team arrives to discover the crumpled form of Dr. Soong and a deactivated Data. Of course, Riker still knows how to turn on the android, who then has a moment to say good-bye to his father.

SOONG: Everybody dies, Data. Well, almost everybody.
DATA: Do you believe that we are in some ways alike, sir?
SOONG: Yes, in many ways, I’d like to believe.
DATA: Then it is alright for you to die, because I will remain alive. You know that I cannot grieve for you, sir.
SOONG: You will, in your own way. Goodbye. Goodbye, Data.
DATA: Goodbye, Father.

With Enterprise back to normal and the Potts brothers safe and back on speaking terms, Dr. Crusher gives us the takeaway for this episode:

My love for this episode comes from two things: Data’s badass takeover of the ship, and Brent Spiner’s virtuosity as three distinct characters: Data, Lore, and Dr. Soong.

I’ve only recently learned about the term “competence porn,” in conjunction with another TV series I’ve started watching, Leverage. So now I know what to call those scenes in which Data outsmarts his friends and controls Enterprise, Spock takes over the original Enterprise in “Menagerie,” Picard fends off terrorists in “Starship Mine” and the Borg in First Contact, and Wesley saves everyone on board in “The Game.” I love watching characters use their unique knowledge of the ship and procedures, along with their own ingenuity and guts, to pull off some amazing stunts. That scene where Captain Kirk stalls Khan and assumes remote control of Reliant in Star Trek II? That’s what I’m talking about.

We probably shouldn’t be rooting for Data in this episode, but it’s hard not to be impressed — and of course we’re caught up in the mystery of what he’s doing and why. The first half of this episode is riveting and thrilling, but it is poorly balanced by the latter half, which oddly seems both ponderous and rushed.

What I find frustrating about this episode is it just doesn’t amount to much. Sure, it sets up later developments in the series, but that doesn’t have much of a payoff, with the lackluster two-parter “Descent” and Star Trek Generations to look forward to. Even with some measure of continuity across episodes, Data’s character doesn’t change much — his arc is largely self-contained and unresolved. And let’s look at the plot progression: The episode focuses on a character who we thought was dead unexpectedly appearing for the first time and ending up dead, and another character we thought was dead unexpectedly returning and then disappearing for two more seasons.

Then we have the other brothers, Jake and Willie Potts, which really drive the point of this episode… into the ground. Couldn’t the B-plot be a little more subtle when it mirrors the struggles and themes of the A-plot? I find it hard to care about these characters we’ve never seen before, who are kind of annoying besides. And it also seems kind of forced: Really, Dr. Crusher can’t treat this kid on Enterprise? Instead of quarantine, couldn’t they just put him in stasis? Even if they have these quarantine fields, shouldn’t they maybe be wearing gloves when touching the sick kid?

Most of all, I don’t agree with the basic presumptions of this episode. First off, Riker and everyone seems to blame Jake for what happened to Willie, but a) he’s a kid, and b) he didn’t feed that parasite-ridden fruit thing to his brother. It’s their fault for not teaching the kid about the stupidity of eating random things you find on new planets, not to mention letting them play around dangerous fauna.

Dr. Soong also seems kind of hypocritical. Does he think Data is sentient and his own person, or is he a thing? Because if you program something to mindlessly return home, it sure sounds like you don’t respect its right to make choices for itself. If he’d just communicated with Data, I’m pretty sure Data would have dropped by to say hi and get some new hardware.

I appreciate the Biblical conflict between Data and Lore, but it’s treading familiar ground already covered in the series and doesn’t progress much; plus, it pales a bit in comparison to the brotherly strife in the previous episode, “Family.” In some ways, this feels like an extension of that episode, but it doesn’t work half as well. Does anyone really think Lore is worthy of being forgiven? He’s pretty clearly a psychopath and can’t be trusted.

When you get down to it, this is mostly a throwaway episode that is fun to watch but doesn’t live up to its potential. It raises many more questions than it answers, way beyond “How did Lore deactivate Data this time?” For instance, security is pretty lax on Enterprise and it’s beginning to look risky to keep an android on board if you can no longer be sure he can be trusted. There are some interesting implications to the events of this episode that get passed over, and I wish there’d been more time to address them.

Eugene’s Rating: Warp 4 (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: I can’t say Brent Spiner’s new outfit is doing much for him. It adds on quite a few pounds and years. He’s almost unrecognizable.

Best Line: PICARD: I want something that will really help.

Trivia/Other Notes: Brent Spiner plays three roles in this episode: Data, Lore, and Soong; however, at one point several older Asian actors were considered to play Soong.

Lore was a late addition to the story, suggested by Michael Piller because the episode didn’t work with just the brothers B-plot and scenes of Data talking with Dr. Soong. It shows, doesn’t it?

About Eugene Myers

E(ugene).C. Myers was assembled in the U.S. from Korean and German parts. He has published four novels and short stories in various magazines and anthologies, most recently 1985: Stori3s from SOS. His first novel, Fair Coin, won the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult SF and Fantasy. He currently writes for the science fiction serial ReMade from Serial Box Publishing.

10 Comments

1.DemetriosX

Posted January 30, 2014 at 8:51 AM

Most Lore episodes tend to be rather flawed. His villainy is too cartoony, too over the top. He doesn’t really have a motivation for it, especially before he got the emotion chip. He’s jealous (?) of Data somehow or thinks he’s inferior or… I don’t know.

It is kind of interesting that they put this right after “Families”. In a way it does expand the themes of that episode to another member of the bridge crew. Riker and Troi have already had their turns in this barrel (and Troi will have several more), but Geordie has to wait forever for it and it’s really sort of vague.

I was wondering if Spiner had done the voice rather than an overdub. He does an absolutely killer Patrick Stewart. If you close your eyes, you’d swear it was the real thing.

2.dep1701

Posted February 1, 2014 at 5:20 PM

Okay, this is going to be a sort of mild ‘rant’ that’s kind of tangentially related to this episode.

I generally dislike long lost /presumed dead / long missing relative ( usually never heard of before… see Star Trek V ) stories because they usually strain credulity. This one is no exception. I’ve forgotten how Soong ( by the way, I’ve also always hated how similar his name was to Khan Noonien Singh… but what can you do? ) explains his escape from the Crystallline Entity, but running away and leaving the other colonists to die – while leaving his pet android out to be found ( “Look at my brilliant creation…don’t mind all the dead people!” ) – doesn’t make him a particularly sympathetic character to me. I find it hard to get too choked up when he dies.

But overlooking that, I’ll generously buy that Soong was still alive. However, when they started throwing in Data’s long lost, previously unheard of ‘Mother’ who turns out ( SPOILER ALERT ) to also be another brilliant creation of Soong’s, and then ‘B-4’ in “Nemesis”, I really threw up my hands in disgust at the multiple shark jumps. I mean, how many of Soong’s progeny were running around the galaxy anyway? Makes Data not seem so special after all.

BTW, on a geeky note; That emotion chip that fits inside a thumbnail sure got big in “Generations” didn’t it? So big that it had to be stuck in his head ( it kind of made more sense that it would go there though ).

Most Lore episodes tend to be rather flawed. His villainy is too cartoony, too over the top. He doesn’t really have a motivation for it, especially before he got the emotion chip. He’s jealous (?) of Data somehow or thinks he’s inferior or… I don’t know.

Might as well go for it and apply this to all Lore episodes. It’s not like there are many of them. The thing I don’t get is why Lore wanted the emotion chip in the first place, since he already seems to have emotions. Unless he just wants to keep it from Data? It’s a shame he was already played as a psychopath, because it would make sense for the instability of the new emotions to drive him over the deep end. I don’t remember much about his appearance in “Descent” except that the episode sucked.

@2 dep1701

I generally dislike long lost /presumed dead / long missing relative ( usually never heard of before… see Star Trek V ) stories because they usually strain credulity.

Yeah. I was at an interview where Ron Moore pointed out how ridiculous the show gets in its last season with long lost relatives coming out of the woodwork. Worf’s brother, Deanna’s sister, Data’s mom… Ugh.

You’re right that Soong is clearly not a very nice guy, and he’s obviously narcissistic, though he’s played in a rather likable way. I never saw the episode of Enterprise with his ancestor in it, but I wonder how different it is.

I really, really hate anything to do with B-4. The concept, the name, the end of that movie. I can’t even buy something from a vending machine if it’s in the B4 slot.

I’m still baffled at why they had to make the emotion chip so big in the movie. Maybe it grew over time… I also don’t really get what the value is of an emotion chip that you can turn on and off whenever you want. That’s not very human.

Speaking of off switches, couldn’t someone rewire Data to deactivate his off-switch or move it or something? Maybe like with the hologram Doctor on Voyager, reprogram it so he has to give permission to someone to use it to turn him off. Whatever.

Eugene, Demetrios, and Dep1701 have hit all the notes I had intended to hit. I have all the same frustrations and irritations. I, too, hate the long-lost/presumed dead/zombie character plotting, the unfortunate cartoonishness of an otherwise promising Lore character, and thought the B-plot with the brothers was beyond lame.

I have one thing to add: something that has still NEVER worked for me is the idea that Soong is hiding out in the jungle laboratory. This is someone who is profoundly arrogant. Sure he’s gotten a little nicer by the time he’s a thousand years old, but he just kept making copies of himself and desperately wanted to be a famous cyberneticist. There is NO WAY this guy, if he were still alive, would stay hidden while he worked on some seekrit project. He’d have leaped out at the nearest starbase and begged to be adored, especially once Data emerged on the scene.

I do love Data taking over the ship, though. It’s one of those scenes where you don’t WANT Picard to stop him because you want to see where this is going.

Warp 4.

5.DemetriosX

Posted February 3, 2014 at 7:38 AM

I hadn’t really thought about Soong’s narcissism rather precluding his hiding out for a couple of decades. I can accept him scarpering when the crystal entity showed up and letting everybody else die, that fits his personality. But Torie’s right, this man needs an audience telling him how brilliant he is. Maybe a better direction to have taken would be to leave Lore out of it (always a good choice, IMO) and have Soong be on the run from the Mob or something. Give him an actual reason for hiding out for so long.

@dep1701
The similarity of the names of Khan and Soong are no accident. Roddenberry encountered a man named Kim Noonien Wang while he was serving in the Pacific. They were either friends or Roddenberry was deeply impressed with the man’s wisdom (I’ve heard both) and GR named both characters in his honor.

I’ve been thinking about Spiner playing the role and I’m still not quite sure if it counts as yellowface or not. Certainly there’s nothing even pretend Asian about the character other than his name and Spiner was a last minute casting choice. OTOH, the producers wanted Keye Luke for the role, so he was obviously originally thought of that way. At least it’s better than Peter Lorre, Mickey Rooney, or Joel Grey.

Wow, that’s a really good point! I also think if he managed to escape, presumably on his own ship, he would have taken Data with him. Or you know what, even if he wanted people to think Soong is dead, a la Zefram Cochrane, maybe he would have continued to operate under a different name; though apparently the “Soong-type” androids are very distinct. Then there’s the issue that he let an entire colony die without telling anyone about what happened. Just throw up your hands and shrug.

@5 DemetriosX

Until last week, I didn’t realize Soong had been intended to be Asian, other than the name, of course. Maybe I assumed in the future, the name didn’t matter after so many generations (I mean, look at me, right?), but it certainly is curious—and disappointing considering how few roles Asians were able to play on television in the early 90s. On the other hand, it would have been very interesting for an Asian scientist to create an android in the form of an extremely white man…

7.Bluejay Young

Posted February 3, 2014 at 8:54 PM

Spiner’s playing Soong never bothered me. He could be Eurasian. He could be an Anglo with an Asian name for some quite normal ancestral reason. Plenty of Asian-Americans have completely Anglo-sounding names, like Amanda Terkel.

The one memorable thing for me was Spiner belting out a couple lines of “Abdul Abulbul Amir”. My mother used to sing that while doing housework. So do I, sometimes.

8.DemetriosX

Posted February 4, 2014 at 6:49 AM

After a bit more thought (and really the whole question only recently occurred to me, probably because of the Cumberbatch casting criticisms), I think they’re reasonably safe from yellowface accusations. The decision not to add Asian features to the old age makeup (and then later on when the younger Soong appears) saves them. And I’ve worked with at least one person with a Chinese surname who could only have looked more Caucasian if he’d been blond. It might have been a little better if his name had been Phil or Wilhelm or something rather than Noonien (and is that maybe a mistransliteration of the Vietnamese Nguyen?).

And as much as I enjoy it, “Abdul Abulbul Amir” is a little problematic, too.

9.Data Logan

Posted March 13, 2014 at 3:12 PM

(2) The emotion chip was small, but didn’t get inserted in thumb. Soong put it into Lore head. The thing in Lore’s thumb was apparently just a recall button for Lore’s ship.
(3) I think this is the last time we see or hear of Data’s off button being used. Even when Lore is deactivated in “Descent” and Data deactivated in “Star Trek: Insurrection” it’s via different means. It may very well be that Data got rid of the off switch. In books (like Imzadi by Peter David) this was stated to be the case.

10.James moseley

Posted February 10, 2018 at 6:48 PM

How many people saw this episode and thought that Jake Potts needed to get his teeth caved in? He’s a fucking monster. “Ok bro. Sorry I made you think you murdered me and I’m sorry that the grief drove you to attempt suicide via poison…(turns to adult) you see. He didn’t accept my apology and he hasn’t apologized for being a “know-it-all” either. He hasn’t learned anything from this ordeal” to riker “Yeah I almost caused everyone to die from an epidemic but my brother was being really annoying.” You can tell that Troi and Riker just want to pummel Jake and then use the kids blood as lubricant while making sweet dirty love. Or maybe that’s just me.